Jökull - 01.12.1979, Qupperneq 4

Geology of Iceland
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: Kristján Saemundsson
THE SHELF AROUND ICELAND: Leo Kristjansson
OUTLINE OF THE GEOLOGY OF ICELAND: Knstján Saemundsson
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN HISTORICAL TIME: Sigurdur Thorarinsson and Kristján Saemundsson
TEPHROCHRONOLOGY AND ITS APPLICATION IN ICELAND: Sigurdur Thorarinsson
EARTHQUAKES IN ICELAND: Páll Einarsson and Sveinbjörn Björnsson
ON CLIMATIC CHANGES IN ICELAND: Leifur A Símonarson
GEOTHERMAL ACTIVITY IN ICELAND: Ingvar Birgir Fridleifsson
OUTLINE OF THE PETROLOGY OF ICELAND: Sveinn Peter Jakobsson
GLACIERS IN ICELAND: Helgi Bjömsson
Introduction
KRISTJÁN SAEMUNDSSON
National Energy A uthority, Reykjavík
Since 1960 when a review of the geology of Ice-
land was presented on the occasion of the Intern-
ational Geol. Congress in Copenhagen, a wealth of
new data has been coming forth. The revolution in
the earth sciences in the nineteen-sixties stimulated
new research and a new look at Iceland’s tectonics
and volcanism in relation to the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge. Land based studies of the lava pile itself,
palaeomagnetic studies and radiometric dating
have revolved ideas about the build up processes
and age of the volcanic sequence in Iceland. Satel-
lite imagery disclosed hitherto unsuspected volca-
notectonic features hidden beneath the ice caps of
Central and South Iceland. Last but not least Ice-
Iand literally felt the drift over the last four years as
one of the volcanic systems in northern Iceland
became active, offering to scientists a unique
opportunity to study the rifting process and
mechanism of magma transport within the rifted
crust.
In this introductory text consideration of the
geophysical properties of the Iceland crust has lar-
gely been left out since fairly up to date reviews
already exist. The main frontiers of geological
research in Iceland are treated under separate
headings in the following chapters of this voiume.
This synthesis was contributed by many authors;
perhaps the most remarkable aspect of it is the
convergent view on the general structure of Ice-
land. For divergent views the reader is referred to
Beloussov’s and Milanovsky’s paper (1977) which
ably summarizes a very different approach.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Pálmason, G. and K. Saemundsson 1974: Iceland
in relation to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Annual
Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 2:
25—50.
Pálmason, G., S. Arnórsson, I. B. Fridleifsson, H.
Kristmannsdóttir, K. Saemundsson, V.
Stefánsson, B. Steingrimsson, J. Tómasson and
L. Kristjansson, 1979: The Iceland crust:
Evidence from drillhole data on structure and
processes. Maurice Ewing Series III., Talwani,
M. (Ed.), (in press).
Beloussov, V. V. and Ye. Ye. Milanovsky, 1977: On
tectonics and tectonic position of Iceland. Tec-
tonophysics 37: 25—40.
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